The Iliad And Exodus Similarities And Differences

Despite these differences between these two different groups of people, there were still a few similarities. A similarity one could make is how both sides had viewed justice as absolute and final. The penalty they shared was how merciless they acted. In the Iliad, Achilles’ quest for justice is encircled by avenging Patroklos’ death after he was killed in battle while protecting Achilles’ name and wearing his armor. This combination of defending his honor and guilt feeds Achilles into becoming a crazed assailant, stuck on going through Heaven and Hell to destroy Hector in the name of Patroklos: “the killer of the man [he] loved – Hector” (Book 18:106). Even though Hector was doing exactly as the Achaeans had done – killing those who were his enemy – Achilles made it his personal mission to make sure Hector was killed slowly and painfully, …show more content…
In Exodus, Moses did not go seeking justice on his own. He was walking along in the desert and happened to stumble upon a burning bush and happened to be the one chosen to fight for justice. Without prior knowledge, Moses was in God’s plan all along to free the Israelites from Egypt, but was never revealed until that moment. If Moses had simply shrugged off all of God’s commands and tried to run away from these responsibilities, it would have been much more difficult for the Israelites to achieve justice if there one advocate was extremely unwilling to cooperate. If Moses also did not share a similar definition of justice as God and believed more in the Pharaoh, the journey would not have worked well. Furthermore, God’s use of the plagues not only proved that obedience towards Him is always important, but that He is very good at persuasion. The use of making the Pharaoh’s life miserable and hardening his heart gave the Israelites a better chance of achieving justice than there was before (Exodus